Greetings from Tacoma General Hospital

^"Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God."  II Corinthians 1:2-4
 
Since late Friday night, I have been in the hospital so that our baby & I could be under careful monitoring.  Friday night through Monday morning we were at Providence Saint Peters Hospital in Olympia, then on Monday morning we were moved to Tacoma General Hospital in case the baby is born early.  Both the baby and I are doing well.  Thank you all for your prayers. 

I read this prayer from the Lutheran Prayer Book this morning: 
Heavenly Father, You are indeed my Lord and God who has created me when I was but nothing.  In addition, You have saved me through Your Son.  Now You have appointed me to this official responsibility and set this work before me.  It does not proceed according to my will, and it is so great that it would otherwise weigh heavily on me and cause me great fer, that I of my own ability could find neither counsel nor help.  Therefore let everything be commended unto You, give me counsel and help, and remain faithful in everything, as You have promised.  Amen.

A photo show update

Here is a little update to show what's been happening at our house lately. 
Several rooms upstairs are textured and ready to be primed and painted.  The living/dining room is being mudded, and the kitchen is being sheet rocked.  Thank you, everyone who is helping us with all of this!

The tortoise and the hare...

Remember the Aesop's fable of the tortoise & the hare?  The tortoise was slow but steady, and in the end he won.  Well, progress on the house is slow but steady, so I know that eventually, it will be move-in ready!  :-)

Here's the living room.  After ripping out broken plaster and patching the walls with sheet rock, then removing the sheet rock to replace the wiring, then putting the sheet rock back on, it is now ready to be mudded and textured!!!

 
Here's the master bedroom.  It's already been mudded, and the texturing should be happening today!

While I get impatient at times (many times), I'm glad we're taking the time to important things like updating wiring and repairing plaster.  I know these 'delays' as I sometimes see them will really pay off longterm.  One of the hardest parts for me (and best parts for me, too!) is that I can't do much to help.  Nate always tells me I'm doing plenty, though.  He's so nice to me!

A room with a new view!

  

Before: Here's a picture of the old window.

After:  Isn't it lovely?  (The window, not the installers!)

I know I'm going to enjoy this new window very much in the years to come.  I am so thankful to have such a good husband who wants to make our home so nice! 

I really like this quote one of my friends has on her blog.  "Let the wife make the husband glad to come home, and let the husband make her sorry to see him leave." - Martin Luther 

A Busy Friday Night

Friday night we did absolutely nothing on the house.  We were too busy making tomato soup for a wedding on Saturday!  Our good friends Ruby (11) and Rose (10) came over to help! 

We used fresh basil & carrots from our garden.

It was great fun!

We made a lot of soup!

Everyone is very excited and happy that Saturday is Josiah & Eva's wedding! 







Electrical inspection tomorrow!

Tomorrow an inspector is coming to check all of our new wiring.  All of the walls in the basement had to be opened up, so we ended up taking out the drywall and the framing of the inside walls.  Here's how the basement looks now. 

Once the electrical is inspected, we can start putting up drywall, then mudding, then painting. 

Rain, rain, rain and a bright side!

It rained all day today, as the electricians continued to run new wiring.  The house is a mess, with old plaster torn open and sheet rock being removed to allow access for the wiring. 



Can you guess what was in the ceiling of the basement, besides chewed up insulation?



I will spare you by only showing evidence of the mice, not the actual critters that we found!

On the bright side, I picked our new kitchen window today!  I can't wait until it is installed!  (Then I won't be able to wait until the kitchen is finished, then until we're able to move in, etc!)


Here it is in the back of our van. 



Wiring update (from 1940 methods to current!)

Our house was built in 1940, so all of the original wiring is 'knob & tube' wiring.  At first, we were only going to replace the kitchen wiring, but now, with good advice from friends, we've decided to replace it all, since we've got so much work to do on the walls right now anyway.  There's no sense in repairing all the walls then having to open them all up later to replace the wiring.  Also, updated wiring will be a lot safer than the old wiring. 

While we have the kitchen ceiling open, we are putting in recessed lighting. 

When the new window is in and the can lights are finished, my kitchen will be nice and bright!



The crystals from the old chandelier from the dining room are being re-used in a project by a good friend of ours. 



Faucets...

Thank you Christine & Leah for your input on faucets! 


Here are the two that we are considering.  
(They match the glaze on our cabinets, and we'll be choosing cabinet handles/pulls to match as well!)



Main sink



 

Prep sink



What kind of faucet do you have?

We are choosing our new kitchen faucets.  I never realized how many thousands of faucets are available!  What kind do you have?  Do you recommend it?  We want to know the pros and cons of different faucets to help us choose our own.  We are looking for a faucet for our main sink and one for our prep sink.  Please let me know what you recommend!  Thanks so much!

Behind the scenes work

The last couple of days we haven't been doing much in the house, but progress is being made!  We hired a man to mud & texture walls for us.  So far he's done the baby's room and the master bedroom.   Yesterday the electricians were rewiring the kitchen.   As much as I love working on the house in the evenings, I really enjoyed staying home (at the duplex) all night last night.  I was ready for a little break. 

Random remodeling pictures

Equipping Jim - the aspiring plumber

Planning

Patching holes in the floor

One of my favorites - No party is complete with a few tears!  Isn't she a Hier girl?

I love sunlight!

To allow more sunlight into the kitchen, we're putting in a new big window over the sink! It's going to be 3ft wide and 4ft tall with an arched top.

Taking out the old window

The view from the kitchen

Some of what we did this weekend

How's that for a creative title?  :-) 

Saturday & Sunday we were busy fixing walls, removing closets, taking out the old pantry, priming, painting, taking out toilets, scraping floors, and burning anything burnable! 
(Note - I use the term 'we' very loosely, because I am mostly watching!)

      

Here's the basement without the old pantry.  Doesn't it look big?

Here's the living room without the old closet. 
The spots on the picture are actually bits of dust in the air.

Fun day Friday!

Friday was a full day!  Pam, Bethany, Amy, Evan, Suzannah, Susie, Jim & Emily all came to help me.  We patched walls, washed walls and began to prime three rooms.  The boys pulled up carpet in what will be my new pantry in the basement. 

On our lunch break, we enjoyed the Williams' lovely backyard - and the boys did some fishing!

I'm very thankful to have so many friends who want to help us!  Everyone is invited over this weekend, too!  :-)

No more chimney!

Today the chimney was taken out of our house, giving us more space in the kitchen and one of the bedrooms upstairs.

Need any bricks?

The kitchen with no chimney in the way!

Standing in the kitchen looking at the sky

More work in the kitchen 

We're having so much fun in our new house!

Look what's been hiding in the kitchen wall!

A bird's nest, complete with empty egg shells!

The beautiful close of a full day

Our New Arrival!

No... not the baby.  We have to wait a bit longer for that arrival. :-)
Today's new arrival is to help bring some semblance of order to our remodel. 
Here's what inspired it:

and plenty more to come!

So here's what arrived today:

Do you think it's big enough?